Here’s another book that tries to mix my peanut butter (gyaru) with my green olives (otaku) and it turns out to be pretty okay. It survives by being genuinely funny and reminding me of a somewhat lamer version of the Archie/Betty/Veronica love triangle.
Look, I’ve lived the life of somebody with nerdy tendencies (who has, like our male lead, also really liked girly anime/manga, and still does) who has attracted a far cooler female. It happens, but these portrayals can be real iffy and annoying and it is all real obvious wish-fulfillment.
Otaku-kun (aka Seo) gets two flavours of gal and that’s where things get interesting. Ijichi is the classic example of type, bubbly and outgoing. Amane is the cooler type (her frosting some dudes later is fantastic), who also definitely isn’t hardcore into the same girly show our lead is into.
The biggest failing here is that the story doesn’t do enough to sell why either of these two would be all that interested in Seo. He’s too eager to talk and awkward as hell, but genuinely nice, but not to the extent that he does anything to warrant the attention he gets. Maybe his art? Again, love is love, but I wanted a. It more.
That said, everything else kind of makes up for it. Amane and her closeted anime obsession (I appreciate how much detail went into what is essentially a blended Sailor Moon and Pokemon parody) are a hoot. The story finds an impressive number of ways to iterate on these jokes and I love how the manga portrays her rapid movements. I can see how it would work in an anime and it would be a ton of fun.
Ijichi’s big thing is that she wears glasses, is smarter than both Seo and Akane put together, and dresses way down when she’s helping out her massive family, but doesn’t want anybody to know. She gets less to do, but she’s still fun. It is really Amane’s story that sells this book.
Seo’s kind of a drip, which is the point, but I appreciate that he’s happy to have these friendships and recognizes these are very attractive females without going crazy overboard about it. This balances its thirsty and comedy levels just right.
And, while the romance is half-baked, the friendship is not. Amane and Seo really bond over the anime they’re into and Ijichi is laid back enough that she comes along for the ride. That part at least skirts credulity. They’re now in a scenario where they both want him, less credible, but it does seem to be fun, which is the point.
Which is all fine - that one joke about Amane carries a lot of this and gets iterated on in a ton of goofy ways. Yes, seeing Seo being accepted for himself is fine, but it’s the comedy mined from Amane that makes it really enjoyable.
3.5 stars - you could do a lot worse, which sounds mean, but is pretty true and I say that because this is absolutely better than I was expecting. It’s basically Archie, and I like Archie, so that’s good enough for me.